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15
2
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
During the year 3,474 notifications of infectious disease were
received, and a commentary on these is given below. Statistical
tables are given on pages 23 and 24 and show the number of
cases of notifiable infectious diseases reported arranged in age
groups (Table 1) and the areas in which they occurred (Table 2).
Vaccination and immunization against certain infectious diseases
is one of the personal health services available to certain limited
groups of people and a reference to this service will be found on
page 67.
Diphtheria
No cases of diphtheria occurred, but five contacts of a confirmed
case residing outside the Borough were investigated. Tests
showed that they were not infected.
Erysipelas
Twenty cases were notified.
Food Poisoning
Sixteen cases of food poisoning were notified during the year.
In 11 cases the causative organism was found to be of the following
types:—
Salmonella brandenburg 3
,, derby 1
„ dublin 1
„ typhimurium 6
The causative organism of the remaining five cases was not
identified.
As with dysentery, the number of cases notified does not reflect
fully the amount of work that is involved in investigating each
notification. Food poisoning is the only disease that can be notified
with the prefix "suspected" before the disease and during the
year 125 suspected cases were also notified, none of which however
was substantiated bacteriologically.
Measles
A total of 2,795 notifications were received.
Measles tends to occur in increased prevalence in alternate years
and 1965 was a "measles" year.
There was one death from this disease in a boy aged 7 years.
Meningococcal Infection
Seven confirmed cases were notified during the year but they
were unrelated. One proved fatal.